A new poll shows voters giving Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) a slight edge when asked which VP candidate is better qualified to serve as president.

The new survey from conservative-leaning outlet Rasmussen shows that 42 percent say the House Budget Chairman and Mitt Romney running mate would be more qualified to be commander-in-chief. Forty percent pick Vice President Joe Biden, with 18 percent undecided.

Ryans two-point edge, however, is within the polls 3-percent margin of error.

The survey comes after a difficult week for the vice president.

On Tuesday, he told a racially mixed audience at a campaign rally in Virginia that Republican policies toward Wall Street would "put y'all back in chains," a comment that brought swift condemnation from Republicans.

The Obama campaign defended Biden and said that his remark was taken out of context.

Yet the latest in a series of gaffes from the vice president, led to media speculation that he might be forced off the ticket, despite the Obama administrations repeated statements that Biden would run with the president in 2012.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Republicans were trying to "distract attention" and said Obama had no intention of getting rid of Biden as his running mate.

Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt also denied a report in a new book, The Amateur, by Ed Klein, that officials had urged Obama to replace Biden with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the ticket.

On Friday, LaBolt said any talk of replacing Biden was just press-driven and called the vice president "absolutely essential to our ticket."

The new Rasmussen poll numbers will also be welcome news at Romney headquarters after other polls in Ryan's first week on the campaign trail suggested he had received a lukewarm response from voters.

A USA Today/Gallup poll on Monday, though, found that the seven-term Wisconsin lawmaker was viewed as a fair or poor choice by 42 percent, with 39 naming him an excellent or pretty good choice.

That survey found Ryan was the worst performing VP pick immediately after his introduction since Vice President Dan Quayle in 1988. Quayle was viewed as a fair or poor choice by 52 percent of the public in that year.

Another Rasmussen poll this week, though, found voters viewing Ryan more favorably after his selection by Romney.

In that poll released Tuesday, 50 percent surveyed said they had a favorable view of the GOP veep pick, including 29 percent who held a very favorable view. Thirty-two percent viewed him unfavorably, with 13 percent holding a very unfavorable view.

Overall, 43 percent said he was the right pick for Romney.

The Rasmussen poll on Biden and Ryan's relative qualifications for the presidency was conducted from Aug. 14 to 15.

I can’t remember a VP selection being named this far ahead of time in a campaign. But, it was a smart move, however, because it gave the Romney/Ryan Ticket an almost 3-week head start on the campaign. And, when an Election is going to be as close as this Election is going to be, that’s a lot of time to woo voters. For example: Ryan was with his mom today at the Villages in Florida. A community of 31,000 Seniors. Good move Romney camp; good move.

6
posted on 08/18/2012 5:17:24 PM PDT
by pistolpackinpapa
(Why is it that you never see any Obama bumper stickers on cars going to work in the mornings?)

"'She'll take the offer', they said. 'She wants it for 2016', they said. 'You'll finally be rid of the idiot!' they said."

Correction: Biden knows what century we are in. He just doesn’t know what century he is in. And his comment about where it is written that we cannot produce the best cars in the world in the Twentieth Century is another of Biden’s plagerisms. I believe Lee Iococca said that in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Joe Biden is truly a Renaissance man. He is a self proclaimed student of history (no mention of grades however). He has amazing talent (check out his rendition of “The Villages” on YouTube. In any debate with Paul Ryan he is assured to receive the sympathy vote. A Biden-Ryan debate would be like watching a small boy kicking a puppy. The Left will find it impossible to defend his performance with a straight face.

Another sign that this election is not going to go Obama's way. This was the week that Romney's VP pick was supposed to get the anal exam...you know, the Sarah Palin/Dan Quayle treatment. It was Romney that was supposed to be on the defensive, justifying his choice of running mate to the American people.

Instead, Romney's pick, Paul Ryan, emerged from the week totally unscathed and it is the incumbent VP who dominated the news cycle with his gaffes and it is Obama who had to put his running mate on a slow boat to China while trying to explain how his running mate is qualified to hold the job he already holds.

Now Romney is going to show up at the RNC with his running mate already fully vetted and bulletproof from media scrutiny. Compared to crazy Uncle Joe, Paul Ryan is Captain America.

Ryan was picked as an invented into a small government conservative to : 1) Allow Romney to back off his campaign promises to get through the election(starting with the Ryan plan) 2) Get Romney bills through the Republican House that have stuff that they swore they are against, much like the Debt limit bill they are disowning now.

I saw Boehner in a clip yesterday praising Ryan for being a ‘reasonable conservative’ and not one of those ‘knuckle draggers’ who voted against TARP, YES, he used those words. .

Campaigning on saving medicare by increasing medicare spending is just the start. All that talk in 2009 and 2010 was just talk, GWB is back. Fool me once...fool me twice...

Remember, BIG GOVERNMENT BIG DEFICIT SPENDING is only bad when Dems do it. Check your principles at the door.

33
posted on 08/19/2012 12:56:06 AM PDT
by sickoflibs
(Romney is still a liberal. Just watch him. (Obama-ney Care ))

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